The government has made no decision to reduce the number of provinces or to ”rationalise” them, President Thabo Mbeki told Parliament on Thursday.
Replying to questions in the National Assembly, Mbeki said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi is to give more details of a provincial- and local-government system review next week.
Mufamadi had simply been asked by the Cabinet to assess whether the government’s central objectives of serving the people were being advanced by the current provincial and local government arrangements, and what might be necessary to address the matter.
The minister would announce the manner in which this review would be undertaken during his budget vote debate in the Assembly on June 6, he said.
”So it’s not a matter of tampering with the Constitution with any evil intention, but looking at the manner in which government works so that it discharges its responsibilities to the people.
”And so, no decision has been taken to reduce the number of provinces and no decision has been taken to consider rationalising the number of provinces.”
Mbeki also rubbished suggestions that ”this non-existent decision to rationalise the number of provinces to gerrymander the system of governance is driven by a hunger for power intended to promote the objectives of the political incumbents” in the provinces.
”This is pure fiction,” he said. Seeking partisan political advantage by misrepresenting government positions also undermined the chances of discussing important questions facing the country.
Some people also had a ”grossly erroneous idea” that living in a particular province determined whether one got better or worse access to services.
The South African nation was indivisible and one sovereign democratic state belonging to all citizens.
”And therefore the idea that living in one part of the country rather than another means that one would be denied the rights, benefits, privileges and responsibilities to which every citizen is entitled is very wrong,” Mbeki said. — Sapa